Listener comments!

🤖 ♥ 6:00pm
: Mark! Techtonituants! 🤖 ♥ 6:01pm
Bas NL: Hello Mark! Hello small techies! 🤖 ♥ 6:01pm
Handy Haversack: Mark and the Techyons! 🤖 ♥ 6:01pm
Webhamster Henry: Don''t forget to pay your pledge ... to FAANG! 🤖 ♥ 6:02pm
Webhamster Henry: This is going be a good ol' depressing show! 🤖 ♥ 6:03pm
DjLorraine: Hello to the voice of reason and my radio friends 🤖 ♥ 6:03pm
Deano de los Muertos: Techtonic tribulation
Fromed a crust of green beyond the reef 🦠🪸

O, hai Mark

🤖 ♥ 6:05pm
chresti: Hi Mark and markers! 🤖 ♥ 6:05pm
ultradamno: bsky.app... ♥ 6:06pm
StringOFperils: Hi Mark! Tell me about how I'll be thirsty and sitting in the dark, while the data-center sucks up everything...   6:07pm
Listener Robert: This is a large factor in the plot of the recent feature film "Eddington". 🤖 ♥ 6:07pm
Ken From Hyde Park:

↳ ultradamno @6:05

Getting a message "You must sign in to view this post." ♥ 6:09pm
McGroovey: Maybe you'll mention this, though it's a Tesla factory, not a data center, but Tesla is soaking NY State for gazillions of dollars of subsidies for a plant in Buffalo....
en.wikipedia.org... ♥ 6:11pm
McGroovey:

↳ McGroovey @6:09

You know, Elon Musk is hard-up for cash. He could never survive without government support. 🤖 ♥ 6:12pm
Will thee SG OCNY: Good evening Mark Hurst, Pat Garofalo, and all!!!   6:12pm
Listener Robert:

↳ McGroovey @6:09

Unfortunately that's how it is with most large projects these days: They're either forbidden or mandatory. That is, government either forbids private enterprise from building, or they become partners in it.   6:14pm
Basil: someone likes Amazon says that being there will stimulate the local economy, so worth the subsidy.... which isn't true. 🤖 ♥ 6:16pm
Deano de los Muertos: has to be payoffs. No politician would seriously believe it’s good for the area. Good for their own pockets   6:17pm
Hugo (NL): Hi there!   6:17pm
Listener Robert: It's like local (sometimes even state) government INCLUDING THE GRASS ROOTS take the stance that government has to take sides on whether a project gets built. In the late 20th Century in New Rochelle my friends got involved in stopping Ikea from using eminent domain to build there. Well, they succeeded in stopping it -- but only by stopping the project entirely, even without eminent domain! They built nearby instead. ♥ 6:18pm
Mark Hurst: Hi ultra, Bas, Handy, webham, DjL, Deano, chresti, StringOFperils, Robert, KfHP, McG, WtSG, Basil, Deano, Hugo - welcome, all!   6:18pm
traven:

↳ Deano de los Muertos @6:16

That's the way it usually works.   6:19pm
chresti: Amazon should PAY for these centers   6:19pm
Listener Robert:

↳ Deano de los Muertos @6:16

You bet it's payoffs -- but the payoffs extend all the way down to little guys to make it a grass roots thing. 🤖 ♥ 6:20pm
joe mulligan: It kills me that the oligarchs who take these taxpayer dollars are being supported by US congressmen and women who are voting against tax monies paying for food and healthcare benefits to the constituents who need the help desperately 🤖 ♥ 6:21pm
joe mulligan: and let's hear it for the Brown Act, making sure meetings aren't behind closed doors ♥ 6:22pm
Mark Hurst:

↳ joe mulligan @6:20

So true - just think of what those billions of dollars of public money could do instead... ♥ 6:23pm
StringOFperils: Big money and clandestine meetings will always exist. All the more reason to pay attention, and to step in and act. Those people think they own you, but they're wrong. They work for you, at least that was the deal. 🤖 ♥ 6:25pm
Webhamster Henry: Those reasons sound like my fave fictional reason from the 80s "potential lost sales".   6:25pm
Listener Robert: Unfortunately the current POTUS came up thru this very system. Large urban real estate developments inevitably involve government.   ♥ 6:28pm
New Dave: I like the idea of "avoiding Amazon" Mark!
Particularly this weekend...
Check out the "We Ain't Buying It" effort.   6:29pm
traven:

↳ StringOFperils @6:23

The sad fact is that too many office holders have forgotten that they serve the people - not the other way around! ♥ 6:29pm
PaulRobeson1925: Interviewee has a great pace for radio ♥ 6:30pm
PaulRobeson1925: Good Job, Pat!   6:33pm
Automating13: Worth looking at the stadium debacle going on in Hobart, Australia... 🤖 ♥ 6:33pm
ultradamno: They can have the Colts back, as far as I'm concerned 🤖 ♥ 6:33pm
Webhamster Henry: Stadium Boondoggles: You want to read Field of Schemes. www.fieldofschemes.com
Neil deMause is a big WFMU Fan! ♥ 6:34pm
Mike Sin: This is a great, insightful interview! Coincidentally, moseying around in my Techtonic t-shirt today. ♥ 6:35pm
Mark Hurst:

↳ Automating13 @6:33

Interesting re Hobart - is there a news story online describing what's happening? ♥ 6:36pm
Mark Hurst:

↳ Mike Sin @6:34

Thanks, Mike - you have impeccable fashion sense ♥ 6:37pm
StringOFperils: When it comes to building decent housing for all of those who really need it, everyone's like 'not in my back yard', yet they're convinced they should foot the bill for new stadiums and arenas, especially where Olympics are concerned, they're on board with it, even tho it always turns out to be some kind of long-term loss. People like shiny objects I guess. Meanwhile urban life deteriorates a little further. 🤖 ♥ 6:40pm
Ken From Hyde Park: At the very least, let's shame them. For every data center they want, make them put their name on a new garbage dump, sewage treatment plant, painful rectal itch clinic, etc.   6:41pm
Bea: Great interview - thank you! 🤖 ♥ 6:42pm
Handy Haversack: Looks like you can still get the newsletter content even if you don't want to give your e-mail address to Substack:

boondoggle.substack.com

  6:50pm
Automating13: @Mark Hurst perhaps this

How much will Tasmanians actually be paying for the stadium proposed for Hobart's Macquarie Point? - ABC News https://share.google/kVJbM5VVcjSqTHRWv

🤖 ♥ 6:51pm
Will thee SG OCNY: If big tech wants something, they should finance the whole project themselves   6:52pm
Automating13: @Mark Hurst amazingly a comedy series predicted it a while ago

https://youtu.be/3XUn-EsThcE?si=WTwyJj3n-rJ7LBze

🤖 ♥ 6:52pm
chresti:

↳ Ken From Hyde Park @6:40

Amazon Rectal Itch Center! 6:53pm
dk50b: Of course AI/data centers will never go away, as only part is driven by AI, and as long as AI can reasonably replace humans at lower costs it's here to stay. Only variable would be some level of Federal control....   6:54pm
traven:

↳ Will thee SG OCNY @6:51

Exactly. They sure can afford to foot the bill. 🤖 ♥ 6:54pm
tim: Thanks, Mark. Great conversation tonight! 🤖 ♥ 6:56pm
Handy Haversack: Thanks, Mark. Another important show. 🤖 ♥ 6:57pm
chresti: Thanks Mark! 🤖 ♥ 6:58pm
Will thee SG OCNY: Thank you Mark, Pat, and Accu Peeps!!!   6:58pm
weezycarneezy: Fuck yeah thank you 🤖 ♥ 6:59pm
Ken From Hyde Park: Thanks, Mark & Pat. 🤖 ♥ 6:59pm
Bas NL: Thanks Mark and Pat! 🤖 ♥ 7:00pm
ultradamno: Enshitterate! Now I'm imagining toilet daleks ♥ 7:00pm
listener 126464: Thank you, Mark. ♥ 7:01pm
Mark Hurst: Thanks, everyone!